Do we like Chandrababu Naidu?
Our score: 5 out of 10. A long governing record with real good in it, set against contested positions, and almost nothing said either way on LGBTQ+ rights.
Naidu was born in 1950 in a farming family in Naravaripalle, and as a kid he reportedly walked 11 km a day to school. He was elected an MLA at 28, then in 1995 took the chief minister's job from his father-in-law, TDP founder NTR, a move one profile calls the most controversial turning point of his career. His first stint is remembered for pushing IT and building up Hyderabad as Cyberabad, and in June 2024 he was sworn in as chief minister for a fourth time.
The big stoush of his recent past: in September 2023 he was arrested over an alleged misappropriation of skill-development funds, a case brought while Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRCP ran the state, and he spent more than 50 days in jail before getting bail. In January 2026 a Vijayawada court closed the case after the CID called the FIR a “mistake of fact”. YSRCP's Kannababu accuses the new government of influencing agencies and closing cases against Naidu, so where you land depends on whether you read it as a dud case or a convenient exit.
The Tirupati laddu row is the one to watch. In September 2024 Naidu said ghee with animal fat was used in the temple's laddus under the previous government. In January 2026 a Supreme Court-appointed, CBI-led SIT chargesheet reportedly found the ghee was chemically adulterated but contained no animal fat. Naidu has stood by his claim, saying he acted on an NDDB report, and warned that “you will perish in this very birth” for using God for politics. YSRCP is asking him to apologise.
On the harm check, the record is mixed. His government launched the Pillale Sampada scheme, and he said the focus should move from population control to population preservation, adding that childcare should be a shared family job, not just women's. Groups still say the payments could add to women's burden. TDP also backed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha in April 2025, with a spokesperson arguing waqf properties should benefit Muslim youth and women. Nothing from Naidu himself on LGBTQ+ or trans rights turned up, so that's honestly a gap.
On the planet and people side, he released the Amaravati declaration in July 2025, a plan to make Andhra a Green Hydrogen Valley by 2030. He also says his government paid Rs 48,019 crore in welfare pensions in its first 16 months. Those are his own figures and announced targets, not audited outcomes, but it is real policy aimed at cleaner energy and poorer households.
In a February 2026 PTI interview he said “My goal is to empower people” and called the TDP's relationship with the BJP-led Centre one where “our support is mutual”. In the same interview he kept the animal-fat line on the laddus, though the SIT has ruled it out. Take the bits of that interview as the pitch of a man who has been in the game since the 1970s.